A series of 6 caches that takes you on a stroll through the nearer reaches of the solar system. It's all set to scale and if you were a fast runner you could get to our cache-planets in the same time light travels to the real planets. No need for that though, take your time and enjoy space!
The first cache has been set to get you close to the sun. We didn't have a container big enough to represent the sun and instead adopted the grand tree that you can see in the field across the Canal, as the centre of of our solar system. We thought the crown gives a good idea of scale (perhaps a bit too big?). The cache itself is paradoxically the smallest in our series, a micro tied to a small tree in the hedgerow.
After you have found this one, carry on south along the Canal towpath - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are all within 3-4m of the path. However they are published only with the coordinates of the Sun (i.e. the tree!). So before you set off make sure to figure out the scale of our solar system: consider human running speed (say 10.8 km/h or 6.7 mph) versus speed of light and round to something that is all zeros except for the first digit. You also need to freshen up on distances and sizes of heavenly bodies in this part of space.
The easiest way to find our planets is to punch the Sun coordinates into your GPS, and to keep track of distance as you follow the towpath. Mars is the furthest out on our journey. For the return leg we have hidden a bonus cache with two stages. You'll find directions to the first stage in Mars.
All caches in this series are only lightly camouflaged, keep it that way please. Absolutely no need to move any rocks or logs, and of course no probing in any walls. Please search gingerly, to avoid damage to caches and environment.
Nearest parking is on Aldcliffe Road, see waypoint.